We all know that Zhuge Liang was resourceful, but he still lost to Sima Yi in the end. Why?

Everyone who has read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" knows that Zhuge Liang is far superior to Sima Yi in terms of wisdom, military skills, and strategy. He can not only use an unguarded empty city to make Sima Yi's troops retreat thirty miles , but in the end Zhuge Liang was defeated by Sima Yi.

Why can’t Zhuge Liang, who is so clever and calculating, fail to defeat Sima Yi? I think there are four reasons for this:

1. Zhuge Liang was influenced by the orthodox thoughts of the Han family. He was elegant and a gentleman. His strategies were mostly used in battlefield battles, but his scheming was rarely used on himself. In order to protect his safety, he said in "Chu Shi Biao" that "I will do my best until I die", which was not an accidental statement; and Sima Yi was influenced by Cao Cao's solipsistic thought of "I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me". When dealing with the world and going into battle, one should always consider one's own life and death, success or failure, and merits and demerits first.

2. Zhuge Liang was influenced by the orthodox thoughts of the Han family and always used the idea of ??"imperial power granted by heaven" to constrain his behavior. Every time the emperor Liu Chan issued an imperial edict to withdraw his troops, Zhuge Liang obeyed his orders. As a result, many opportunities for surprise victory were delayed, resulting in six outings from Qishan, but all successes failed. However, when Sima Yi led his troops to fight, he believed in "the foreign emperor will not accept his orders" as his creed, and everything was based on military victory. Regarding Zhuge Liang's approach, Sima Yi once lamented: "Liang has great ambitions but does not see opportunities, has many plans but few decisions, is a good soldier but has no power. Although he has raised 100,000 soldiers, he has fallen into my painting and must be defeated!".

3. Zhuge Liang received the kindness of his late master Liu Bei, so he always had the heart to repay his kindness throughout his life. Whether in ordinary life or leading the army in war, he always regarded repaying kindness as the most important thing, which greatly increased his desire to do things for others. Burden, someone once saw that Zhuge Liang was very involved in everything, working day and night, so he tried to dissuade him and said, "Now that the prime minister is personally responsible for the details, wouldn't it be hard work all day long?" Zhuge Liang cried and said, "I don't know. But I am entrusted by the late emperor to be so important, for fear that others will not do it." It seems that I am doing my best!" It can be seen that the burden in Zhuge Liang's heart is heavy; while Sima Yi has no intention of loyalty to the emperor, let alone the intention of repaying the kindness. He leads the troops to fight with ease. The most important thing is to control the military power. With military power, everything is possible. Therefore, Sima Yi spent his whole life planning how to firmly control the military.

4. Zhuge Liang was cautious throughout his life and cautious in his dealings. Whether in daily government affairs or leading an army on an expedition, he always took action and did everything himself, even to the point of micromanaging everything. This not only affected his concentration on the military , and it also increased his physical exertion. In addition, he lived a simple life and ate simple food, which undoubtedly accelerated his aging. Sima Yi was quite critical of Zhuge Liang's actions. Once, Sima Yi asked Zhuge Liang who sent him The envoy said: "What's the trouble with Kongming's sleeping, eating and doing things?" The envoy replied: "The prime minister is up early and sleeps at night, and all the fines of more than 20 years are personally seen. The food he eats is only a few liters a day." Sima Yi then told the account The generals below said: "Kong Ming eats less and has less trouble, how can he last longer?" Soon, Zhuge Liang died of illness in Wuzhangyuan.

From ancient times to the present, Zhuge Liang has always been regarded as a gentleman, while Sima Yi has always been called a treacherous villain. Zhuge Liang's gentlemanly demeanor has become the main reason why he returned from six expeditions to the Central Plains without success. The reason was that Sima Yi's villainous behavior became the magic weapon for him to defeat the enemy and achieve success. It can be seen that everything in the world has its irreversible and unpredictable natural laws.